Prentice says sports complex development beneficial to city

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, April 8, 2010

As the Scharbauer Sports Complex comes closer to its 10th anniversary, Midland RockHounds owner Miles Prentice sees something that he didn’t even envision when the stadium opened eight years ago.

Prentice, who was in town for the RockHounds’ season opener on Thursday, said that the development around the stadium has been somewhat of a surprise for him. But he said it’s something that has been a benefit to the club and the city.

“It has created an economic benefit that none of us would’ve predicted, and I wouldn’t have tried to sell it on that basis,” Prentice said. “I would suggest there isn’t a community this size in the country that has a facility equal to that. The whole complex is extraordinary.”

As the 36th season of Double-A baseball begins this week in Midland, Prentice and RockHounds General Manager Monty Hoppel said the relationship between the team and the city has never been better. Prentice, who has owned the Midland franchise since 1990, went so far as to say it’s “the best” he has among the other minor league franchises he owns.

Both Hoppel and Prentice said that relationship will be key as they work to make capital improvements to the complex in the future.

One of those improvements is the addition of an indoor batting cage and maintenance facility to Citibank Ballpark. Last week at the meeting of the city’s 4-B board, which handles the complex, Hoppel said the project would cost more than $300,000, which the city would pay for to build.

Hoppel said the facility was part of the original plans when Citibank was built in the early 2000s but was scrapped because “the budget was tight in the beginning.”

Hoppel said as the paying off the bonds to finance the complex continues ahead of schedule, that he said the building is a project that is on a “punch” or wish list for the facility. Hoppel said that sales tax receipts were down “a little bit” but it was way over what was predicted in the payments, and that the money taken from the sales tax is only there for the complex.

Hoppel added that having the facility is also part of the guidelines presented to minor league franchises from Major League Baseball. Hoppel also said that if it is built he would like for teams to have access to the facility in the offseason or when the RockHounds are out of town.

“With this economic climate, we are more aware than anybody,” Hoppel said. “This is actually something that is two years away. We’ve kind of put together this list we are working on with the city, and some things may not be as important as others. But this is projected, and it still has to go through the council.”

Prentice added that as much as 40 percent of the sales tax used to pay off the bonds and for capital improvements is paid for by “non-Midlanders.”

“Most of the residents of Midland, they don’t stay in hotels, don’t rent cars here and are coming in from out of town,” Prentice said. “I think people lose sight of that.”

As the discussion goes on about the capital improvements to the facilities, Prentice said how the facility has been maintained is a testament to the partnership between the city and the RockHounds. It’s that partnership that he said will help things work out in the end.

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“You look at that ballpark today, and it looks like it could’ve been built just now,” Prentice said. “It’s a partnership.”